Author Archives: Danlu Ding

New Era, Old Issue: Should 24-7 Stop?

by Danlu Ding

On May 1, 2019, Japan turned into a new era from Heisei to Reiwa when the new emperor Naruhito was enthroned. Many proper in Japan were really excited about the beginning of the new era. 

But not everyone was happy. Hachioji Yorozucho, A worker of the convenience store 7-11, had been worked as this job in midnights for 12 years. This is a busy work. Yorozucho could never leave work on time which was 9 a.m. He and the store owner Toshiro Masuda were not excited of the coming of the new era. Masuda thought the excitement was the wish of the government. Even though they made good progress on the sales, they still faced problems since the lack of customers made them paying for the unsold goods. And the nightly revenue even couldn’t afford a worker’s salary. Even though they trade to stop the mode of 24 hours which was tiring and not really efficient, the public and the company rejected. Luckily, “Takanori Sakai, chairman of a union of convenience store operators in Japan”(Mainichi Japan,2019), and some managers of 7-11 realized the problem and decided to cancel the operation mode of 24 hours. Since the profit couldn’t catch up inflation, the condition of convenience store was ill tough. 

Convenience stores, such as 7-11, operate in the mode of 24-7 intend make the store really convenient, but this also causes some problem. the cost for operation at nights is almost the same as in daytimes. The company still need to pay for the electricity, water, salaries, etc. Can the revenue provided by the few customers cover the high cost? Moreover, it is really tiring and unsafe. It becomes hard to control the working environment. If something happens, there will be extra cost.  

On the other hand, convenience stores seem to be necessary especially in cities. Even there are less customers, there always exists people in need of the stores. For example, someone need felt really hungry after leaving work in the late night; someone is hurt and needs a bandage. Opening the stores at night really helps people and can gain good impressions form the public. But is it worth being so responsible to the society consider the unbalance of the gain and loss?

Maybe there is a small tip: the government can make statistics of the convenient stores at nights and even evaluate the quality and the income situation and give some allowance to decrease the losses. 

original news: https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20190504/p2a/00m/0na/008000c

Tesla CEO Elon Musk Overworked in 2018

by Danlu Ding

Elon Musk, Tesla CEO, seemed to spend a hard year in 2018 that made him really overworked. He described himself “felt like aging five years in one.”

In 2018, Tesla faced “production hell” of Model 3, with issues of making batteries, producing parts,  and developing assembly lines. And the production was far behind his expectation. To escape the hell, Musk worked almost 120 hours, staying in Gigafactory for 3 to 4 days a week. However, it doesn’t mean Musk was at leisure during previous years. He continuously had sleeping problems and didn’t even celebrate his own birthday. Theexperts pointed that his busy life might lead to cardio disease, suicide, and even cancer. 

“Tesla super charger spot, non-Tesla cars don’t park here↓” This is one of the five parking spots with Tesla chargers among several hundred spots in a shopping mall in Shanghai, China. And they are all empty. Photoed on Dec 24, 2018

Beginning in 2003, Tesla now becomes one of 2018’s 500 Most Influential Brands, after experiencing the “production hell.” The products based onthe concept of IT is till innovative among motor industry. The company has involved into several events and experienced ups and downs. Mucks, undertaking such pressures, went through most of the difficulties and made great progress. 

Running a company with innovative products is risky. So maintaining success needed not only intelligence, but also the input of large amount of time and effort. This is also what Musk exactly has done during these years since he was in office to maintain competitive in the automobile industry. Since cars based on electricity is not convenience enough to be widely used, Musk needs to work harder to make innovation and development on the products and services that can satisfy the consumers. So it seems reasonable and not at all surprising about the overworking of Musk. 

The last paragraph of the passage also talked about the Karoshi(means working to die) in Japan, with the case of the death of a 31-year-old Japanese woman in 2017. It seems sad but is not totally avoidable, at least in recent years. Extra effort is necessary in most countries due to the competitive market. The conclusion stated in the passage is that “Working too much…is dangerous to your health.” But people have no choice. If they relax, as the author wishes, they will fall behind. So they can either work hard or leave the job. This is the trend of the world and is it really what we want after putting ourselves into hard education? 

Original news: https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-dangers-of-overwork-2018-8

TikTok to pays $5.7 million over alleged violation of child privacy law

by Danlu Ding

TikTok is a media app from China used to or create and share short videos. The company called ByteDance. The media app was launched as Douyin in China in September 2016 and then became world wide one year later. It attracts users from a wide age range, especially young people and even children. 

In Feb. 27th, TikTok fined 5.7 million dollars because of the charge of “illegally collected images, voice recordings, and geolocation” of children under 13 years old. This was regarded as “the largest civil penalty ever issued by the agency in a child privacy case.”The company sometimes refused to delete children’s information even complained by children’s parents and still remained the videos after deleting the children’s ID. Moreover, it also encouraged children to engage in sexual activity online. Since TikTok was making profit by damaging children, the FTC complaint accused the company of violating the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act.  

In the aspect of commercial law, TikTok went against the policies of consumer and users’ privacy. In terms of protecting children, the Supreme court also have limitation and filter of  obscene speech and pornographic materials. So allowing those material to be spreaded is not only responsible to the society and needs to be changed by the law. Since many children don’t have the awareness of protecting themselves from the potential danger, many groups can easily use the information for their own profits. 

Tis case is really important to operating a business since when we provide a platform on social media, we really have to think about the safety and privacy to protect users and consumers, thinking about whether the media will be illegally used and taking action to protect the users, prior to how much profit it can earn. Once some issues break the law, that will be the loss and danger of both users and operators. 

What’s a good news is that after this case, TikTok now realizes the importance of privacy and safety of users, especially children and is making changes to make the usage of  the app by children safer, following the requirements of  FTC. The users’ personal information will not allowed to be shared and interaction between users will have more limitation. 

The original news: https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/tiktok-pay-5-7-million-over-alleged-violation-child-privacy-n977186

Why I Chose Accountancy as my Major

by Danlu Ding

Everything started in the first year in high school-it might be the sophomore year in American high schools. Deciding the major I wanted to choose and apply for was hard. I once wanted to choose a major about media, but my mom said it was not good for Chinese to learn in America. Art? My mom thought I won’t get stable income. Math? I would lose my hair! Environmental science? I didn’t want to see the terrible insects. Engineer or Computer? It made me uncomfortable  to learn extensively about different sophisticated computer systems.Since I found I did well in my AP calculus and microeconomics exam, I thought the area of business is the best choice. Then I did the research with my mom. We found that people with the knowledge is highly demanded all around the world, so do China and America, and can’t yet be replaced by electronic devices. Moreover, many of the skills needed for learning about accounting belong to the subjects that I’m good at, which brought me confidence. Therefore, I chose accounting as my major.

Now, as a student, I still have a long way to go, working hard to gain accounting knowledge and skills and training myself to do better in my major, before getting to work in practice. After knowing about the basic concepts of accounting,  I am already willing to and prepared to take challenges in following steps in schools and workplaces and have a great longing for a bright future of my further education and occupation: I will try my best to learn about accounting and do the best as I can. Since accountants are needed by all the companies in all areas, what inspire my enthusiasm is that I can work with what I have learnt for my interested industries like fashion and media. I was impressed by those two industries when I was at primary school and started to learn deeply about them at high school. I began to read the magazines, watch the documentaries about a brand, a trend, a talented person, or even a kind of techniche. I admit some words that those two industries are sometimes costly, but I totally disagree with some people’s prejudice that fashion and media are totally unnecessary. Using money wisely in these areas can have large positive effects to the society and people’s minds and lifestyles. This is also what I want to put effort on.  Because of my interests, I will spend all my efforts to make the anything that I work with become better.

Actions speak louder than words. Having the reason and the promotion of choosing accountancy as my major, I will not stop improving myself: I will work hard, hoping to make achievement in both education and occupation.